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Tuesday, 4 March 2014

Crocuses in the rain

Mild weather is all very well, but sometimes I would rather have cold and DRY! I'm sure we are all fed up with the never-ending rain. I suppose we have to consider ourselves lucky that we haven't had a storm for some while now - it must be at least a week...

Crocuses don't like rain. They remain closed up and let the raindrops slide down their slim, pointed flowers:

"Ruby Giant"

It's hard for me to get my camera to do justice to this one's true colour. It's not blue. It's not purple. In some light conditions it looks almost red:
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"Ruby Giant"

This one, spattered with tiny pearldrops of rain, was described simply as "Yellow", but it has dark mauve stripes on the outside of its flowers, just like "Gypsy Girl".
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"Yellow"

﻿There's no doubt about this one's credentials. This is "Prins Claus":

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"Prins Claus"

The flowers in the photos above are in some small pots. Seen from a distance today, they look distinctly unimpressive, but yesterday afternoon when the sun was out the blooms were fully open and much more colourful.
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I think the pot at left rear (without any flowers open at present) contains "Cream Beauty", but I'm not certain of that. Should have labelled them, I suppose!

The Crocuses around the bases of the trees have taken a battering from the rain, and today they are a really sorry sight. Most of the "Tommasinianus" (light mauve) ones have finished now, but this patch of "Ruby Giant" would have been good for a few more days if the weather had been better:

"Ruby Giant"

Out at the front of the house, the circular bed round the Crab Apple tree looks good now. The Irises are past their best, but the Daffodils (mostly Tete a Tete) are in fine form:

﻿And of course, you already know that the "Soleils d'Or" are at their best...